Please note as of January 5, 2009 all commentary except original submissions will be archived here. You can also read our current newsletter online.
Why I back a mosque compromise
The builders want to build it as a healing gesture, but healing is impossible without dialogue
by HOWARD DEAN 
A Chainsaw Recovery
The recovery isn't, and why it isn't.
by Bryan Zepp Jamieson
Why won't the Pentagon help WikiLeaks redact documents?
by GLENN GREENWALD
"If Pentagon officials are truly concerned about the well-being of Afghan sources identified in these documents -- rather than exaggerating and exploiting that concern in order to harm WikiLeaks' credibility -- wouldn't they be eager to help WikiLeaks redact these documents? That would be the behavior one would expect if these concerns were at all genuine."
"Unregulated Greed has Destroyed the Capitalist System": The Big Things That Matter And The Little Things That Annoy
by Paul Craig Roberts
Why are we so willing to repeat history's mistakes?
Ideology and money interests trump lessons of the past in debates over war, economics and taxes
by DAVID SIROTA
Paul Krugman: "I told you so, again"
Even Cassandra wasn't this right. Re-reading the economist on bond yields, the stimulus and GOP obstructionism
by ANDREW LEONARD
Charges against Julian Assange withdrawn, unfounded
by GLENN GREENWALD
Other countries probing Bush-era torture — Why aren't we?
by Shashank Bengali
Healthcare Fisaco
by Brent Budowsky
"Congress should return from its prolonged recess and pass a tax cut for the middle class and a jobs tax credit for small business, and should return after the election to rewrite a healthcare bill that has severe problems that must be addressed."
Spinning the US Failure in Iraq
by Robert Parry
"Official Washington, in particular, has been eager to spin the Iraq withdrawal as a success, a prelude to a bright Iraqi future in which the United States can begin recouping its $1 trillion-plus investment over the past seven years (not to mention, get something back for the 4,416 American soldiers who died during the adventure)."
Fox News Comes Out of the Closet
by Cenk Uygur
"Fox News finally made it official. They are part and parcel of the Republican Party. They are now the largest donors to the Republican Governors Association, having given them $1 million dollars. They also employ three out of the top four Republicans in the Iowa Caucus Poll for GOP presidential candidates."
Back to the Heart of Darkness in America's Unended War in Iraq
by Chris Floyd
US troops say goodbye to Iraq
Torture. Corruption. Civil war. America has certainly left its mark
by Robert Fisk
The "mosque" debate is not a "distraction"
by GLENN GREENWALD
"There's been a tendency, which I find increasingly irritating, to dismiss this whole Park51 debate as some sort of petty, inconsequential August 'distraction' from what Really Matters."
The Most Obnoxious Thing on the Internet This Month
by Matt Taibbi
Fact-free accusations about WikiLeaks
by GLENN GREENWALD
The anti-war movement in the context of illegitimate but largely non-disruptive wars
by Stephen Gowans
The Tiger Woods of nations
We’ve been very good at a couple of things for some time now. Things like commerce and belligerence. Or, best yet, commerce backed by belligerence. Things that involve a bit of testosterone.
by David M Green
An exciting new Muslim country to drone attack
by GLENN GREENWALD
"What's going on here seems fairly obvious. The absurdity of escalating a war in Afghanistan by pointing to The Scary Al Qaeda Menace -- when there is virtually no Al Qaeda presence in that country -- is becoming increasingly apparent. Just yesterday, a Washington Post article documented -- using the WikiLeaks war documents (which, remember, told us absolutely nothing worth knowing) -- that Al Qaeda is virtually non-existent in the war in Afghanistan."
'Ground Zero mosque'? The reality is less provocative
Millions of Americans are furious about the 'Ground Zero mosque'. But it doesn't exist
by Charlie Brooker
Does the past record of journalists matter?
by GLENN GREENWALD
Self-Immolation
Obama losing the shooting wars, and the shouting wars
by Bryan Zepp Jamieson
Separation of Church and Hate:
The Kate Mosque Solution
by Greg Palast
Obama defends "Ground Zero mosque"
by GLENN GREENWALD
"This is one of the most impressive and commendable things Obama has done since being inaugurated."
What Carter-bashing tells us about Bush-bashing
Will a new generation of Bush-bashers be deriding the 43rd president at the 2036 Democratic convention?
by STEVE KORNACKI
Khadr Lawyer Collapses as Historic War Crimes Trial Gets Underway
by Daphne Eviatar
"The irony of the U.S. charging with murder a 15-year-old civilian who was shot twice in the back, blinded and peppered with shrapnel by US forces during a four-hour shootout and aerial bombardment is becoming increasingly clear as the government begins to present its case."
The fear campaign and Social Security
by GLENN GREENWALD
"It appears that the Democrats intend to try to win the midterm elections by scaring Americans into believeing that a GOP victory would endanger their Social Security benefits..."
The Jobs Crisis: What Hit Us?
by Bob Burnett
"The roots of the jobs crisis stretch back to the Ronald Reagan presidency when conservative economic ideology began to dominate American political discourse."
A CNN anchor expresses the crux of "mosque" opposition
by GLENN GREENWALD
"This campaign is nothing different than all of the standard, definitively bigoted efforts to hold entire demographic groups of people responsible for the aberrational acts of a small percentage of individual members."
There is no ‘Ground Zero Mosque’
The Countdown host questions America’s religious tolerance
by Keith Olbermann, Special Comment
Tom DeLay Whitewash Is Another Black Mark for Obama DOJ
by Roger Shuler
Impact of Israeli Military Order No. 1650
by Stephen Lendman
"Potentially, all West Bank and East Jerusalemites risk dispossession and expulsion, part of Israel's longstanding policy to seize all parts of Palestine it wishes, removing indigenous Arabs from their homeland illegally, controlling those remaining under an oppressive apartheid system critics call worse than South Africa's with good reason."
Mosque Furor Endangers US Troops
by Robert Parry
"So, instead of the United States appearing to be a nation tolerant of Islam and all other religions, the world is seeing red-faced Americans screaming at New York City officials who allowed the building plans to go forward."
Grow a Pair, Democrats
by Peter Beinart
"But the mosque fiasco hasn’t only exposed the pretensions of the GOP. It’s exposed the pretensions of the Democrats as well. In important ways, it has revealed that the Obama administration, too, is a false dawn."
Elizabeth Warren or Bust!
by David Corn
"As a non-corporatist with no love lost for Wall Street, Warren would stand out as a member of Obama's economic team. She would provide a counterbalance to the pro-bail-out gang running Obama's economic policies."
Howard Dean: "Mosque" should move
by GLENN GREENWALD
"Certain things are disappointing and surprising even for the most hardened cynics. Hearing Howard Dean -- the former liberal standard-bearer -- join Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin by saying the following is definitely one of them."
Is there anyone the right doesn't hate?
Commentary: Fear mongering never went out of style in politics
by Rex Nutting
"So it's no surprise that in the midst of a great economic catastrophe, the right would search for scapegoats instead of answers."
What political courage looks like
by GLENN GREENWALD
Is the Mosque Issue a Risk for Obama?
How the president should navigate the politics surrounding the proposed Islamic center near ground zero.
by Glenn Greewald with other contributors
What collapsing empire looks like
BY GLENN GREENWALD
"But a new New York Times article today illustrates as vividly as anything else what a collapsing empire looks like, as it profiles just a few of the budget cuts which cities around the country are being forced to make."
Tony Blair Must Be Prosecuted
by John Pilger
"Blair conspired in and executed an unprovoked war of aggression against a defenseless country, which the Nuremberg judges in 1946 described as the 'paramount war crime.'"
New Evidence About Prisoners Held in Secret CIA Prisons in Poland and Romania
by Andy Worthington
The alleged political benefits of moderation
BY GLENN GREENWALD
An Internationalism Republicans and Democrats Can Agree On
by Steve Clemons
"My point is that there are Democrats and Republicans -- lots of them -- committed to robust international engagement, to smart foreign aid, and to coherent and sensible U.S. international public diplomacy."
Remember the 'Liberal Hawks' Who Got Us into the Iraq Disaster? Now They've Joined the Neocons to Support an Iran Attack
Nobody's learned their lesson it seems.
by Ali Gharib
Rethinking Iran-Contra: A Much Darker Story?
The Iran-Contra/ October Surprise was the missing link in a larger American political narrative
by Robert Parry
Unemployment and Obama's original sin
by STEVE KORNACKI
US Navy Stunned: Deadly new Chinese Missiles can Sink Every US Supercarrier
by Terrence Aym
Marriage and the role of the state
by GLENN GREENWALD
Why the U.S. Won't Cut Ties with Israel, No Matter How Extreme Its Government Gets
A thick web of military-strategic ties is at the heart of the US-Israeli relationship.
by Phyllis Bennis
October Surprise Cover-up Unravels
by
Robert Parry
And, So, The Love Affair Ends. President Obama
by Michael Payne
America's stadium-mob mentality
One man's constitutional rights are trampled, and thousands of fans cheer
by DAVID SIROTA
Obama's growing unpopularity in the Muslim world
BY GLENN GREENWALD
"For all the controversy raised by anyone who claims that our ongoing, steadfast, one-sided support for Israel plays a significant role in generating anti-American sentiment in the Muslim world, this poll leaves no doubt that this is so."
First U.S. Trial of 'Child Soldier' in Modern History Starts This Week at Gitmo
by Daphne Eviatar
"What's more, based on what's been presented in pretrial hearings so far, there appears to be little or no evidence, other than 'confessions' extracted under highly suspicious circumstances, that Khadr actually committed the most serious crime he's accused of: throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier."
The Omar Khadr travesty
by GLENN GREENWALD
"Military commissions were one of those Bush/Cheney policies which provoked virtually universal outrage among progressives and Democrats back in the day when executive power abuses and rule of law transgressions were a concern."
Ehud Barak makes the case against Zionism
by JUSTIN ELLIOTT
"The problem with Israel, in short, is not—as is sometimes suggested—that it is a European “enclave” in the Arab world; but rather that it arrived too late."
The Point of No Return
by Jeffrey Goldberg
Posted here because we felt it was important to alert our readers to the arguments and justifications being put together now by the neocons that will be used to plead the case for an attack on Iran.
Gibbs frustration understandable but misguided
Blame belongs with the 'professional right' and foolish compromise
by Keith Olbermann - exceptional Special Comment
Gibbs is Wrong: It Isn't About the Professional Left
by Cenk Uygur
Imperial ironies
by GLENN GREENWALD
Robert Gibbs attacks the fringe losers of the Left
by GLENN GREENWALD
"But Robert Gibbs -- in one of the most petulant, self-pitying outbursts seen from a top political official in recent memory, half derived from a paranoid Richard Nixon rant and the other half from a Sean Hannity/Sarah Palin caricature of The Far Left -- is here to tell you that the real reason you're dissatisfied with the President is because you're a fringe, ideological, Leftist extremist ingrate who needs drug counseling."
The End of (Military) History? The United States, Israel, and the Failure of the Western Way of War
by Andrew Bacevich
Come the Revolution: Are We There Yet?
by Bernard Weiner
GOP Opposes Federal Fracking Regs Regardless of Whether EPA Finds Poisoning
by David Sirota
'Cracking the Code' to Keeping Manufacturing Jobs in America
by Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm
"While we won't be able to keep all labor-intensive manufacturing jobs in America, here's what we're finding out: We can keep skill-intensive, advanced manufacturing jobs here."
Our Military's Disturbing Transition to Warriors
by William Astore
Four More Years Of War -- Just For Starters
by Dan Froomkin
"There are increasingly clear signs that President Obama's vow to start withdrawing American troops less than a year from now will be fulfilled through a technicality if at all, and that the real timeline for significant troop withdrawal -- barring a change in course -- now extends at least to 2014, if not far beyond."
The Real Aim of Israel's Bomb Iran Campaign
by Gareth Porter
"What is important to understand about this campaign is that the aim of Gerecht and of the right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu is to support an attack by Israel so that the United States can be drawn into direct, full-scale war with Iran...because Israel cannot fight a war with Iran without full U.S. involvement. Israel needs to know that the United States will finish the war that Israel wants to start."
ACLU, CCR seek to have Obama enjoined from killing Awlaki without due process
by GLENN GREENWALD
"A major legal challenge to one of the Obama administration's most radical assertions of executive power began this morning in a federal courthouse in Washington, DC."
The deception of real-world "Inception"
What the new science-fiction movie tells us about the willful ignorance that dominates America's political culture
by DAVID SIROTA
Let's not get too excited about Anthony Weiner
by STEVE KORNACKI
"...his theatrics -- last night and every time he makes noise on the House floor or cable television -- are best understood as part of a shrewd strategy to position Weiner for the 2013 New York mayor's race."
NYT: Pervasive surveillance is a serious threat -- in China
by GLENN GREENWALD
Why blaming Bush is a dead end for Democrats
Voters get that the former president is mainly responsible for the current mess. But it won't help Democrats now
by STEVE KORNACKI
An interview with Richard Brenneman, journalist who covered the Polanski trial
by David Walsh
"The effort by the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office, assisted by the Obama administration’s Justice Department, to extradite Polanski in relation to charges of having sex with a teenage girl dating to the late 1970s, was a vindictive and politically motivated act."
Crazy Muslim conspiracy theories
by GLENN GREENWALD
The auto industry lives. Can we admit that government intervention worked?
by E.J. Dionne Jr.
The “Summer Camp Of Destruction:” Israeli High Schoolers Assist The Razing Of A Bedouin Town
by Max Blumenthal
Washington's Ethical Double Standard
by Robert Parry
"As two longtime members of the Congressional Black Caucus Charles Rangel and Maxine Waters are dragged into the public square to be punished for alleged ethical indiscretions, it may be worth remembering how Official Washington responded to evidence that President George W. Bush aided and abetted his corrupt benefactors at Enron."
The origins of the enthusiasm gap
President Obama's agenda has been big enough to attract fierce opposition, but not bold enough to inspire his base
by ROBERT REICH
Michael Hastings' embed permission is revoked
by GLENN GREENWALD
"The author of the Rolling Stone article that ended the military career of Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the former top commander in Afghanistan, has been denied permission to join U.S. troops fighting in Afghanistan, the Pentagon said Tuesday."
Rep. Rogers: We Should Have Considered Executing Daniel Ellsberg
by Cenk Uygur
Defending Religious Tolerance: Remarks on the Mosque Near Ground Zero
by Michael R. Bloomberg
The Big Leak
Julian Assange may have killed the rationale for the Afghanistan occupation
by Bryan Zepp Jamieson
The lesson of Blanche Lincoln's doomed campaign
Democrats would have been better off nominating the man who ran against her in the Democratic primary
by STEVE KORNACKI
Not good enough, Mr. President
With Shirley Sherrod, it still looks like Obama let himself be bullied by the crazies
by JONATHAN BERNSTEIN
Why has the Post series created so little reaction?
by GLENN GREENWALD
Senate control could come down to Crist and Lieberman
by STEVE KORNACKI
Intelligence oversight panels dodge contractor reform
by Jeff Stein
"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has long wanted more members of Congress to know what’s going on at the CIA, but why doesn’t she announce a full-fledged investigation into the intelligence contractor mess, complete with televised hearings?"
CNN anchors attack the scourge of anonymity
by GLENN GREENWALD
Stop Hyperventilating: Obama Will Not Choose War with Iran
by Steve Clemons
The Real Reason Geithner Is Afraid of Elizabeth Warren
by John R. Talbott
"One can assume that Geithner, being very close to the nation's biggest banks, is concerned that Warren, if chosen, will exercise her new policing and enforcement powers to restrict those abusive practices at our commercial banks that have been harmful to consumers and depositors."
No to Oligarchy
by Bernie Sanders
Six Facts No War Supporter Knows
by David Swanson
The Afghan Carousel / No Strategy, No Exit and More Suicides
by Allen L Roland
The WikiLeaks Afghanistan leak
by GLENN GREENWALD
"The most consequential news item of the week will obviously be -- or at least should be -- the massive new leak by WikiLeaks of 90,000 pages of classified material chronicling the truth about the war in Afghanistan from 2004 through 2009."
The Afghanistan War Logs Released by Wikileaks, the World's First Stateless News Organization
by Jay Rosen
'Data journalism' scores a massive hit with Wikileaks revelations
from Greenslade blog
WIKILEAKS AND THE WAR
Posted by Amy Davidson
No More Apologies -- It's Time to Stand Up for Our Convictions
by Howard Dean
Miracles and Myths -- Opiate of the Afghanistan Hawks
by Michael Brenner
Afghan War Leaks Expose Costly, Deceitful March of Folly
by Ray McGovern
The Roots of Obama's "Pundit Delusion"
by David Sirota
"To be focused on deficit reduction instead of job creation right now is both ludicrously bad economic policy (as evidenced by history) and wildly unpopular (as evidenced by numerous recent polls - including one even from Fox News)."
Leaky Vessels: Wikileaks "Revelations" Will Comfort Warmongers, Confirm Conventional Wisdom
by Chris Floyd
How Bush Botched the Afghan War
by Robert Parry
On the AfPak / Wikileaks Documents
by James Fallows
The Opposites Game: All the Strangeness of Our American World in One Article
by Tom Engelhardt
"Have you ever thought about just how strange this country's version of normal truly is?"
The Tea Party is Perverted and Irrelevant
by Matt Taibbi
Why Congress Must End Bush Tax Breaks for the Rich
by Robert Creamer
Fear Factor: What's Keeping the President From Picking the Best Person to Protect Consumers?
by Arianna Huffington
Is Obama DOJ Engaged in a Coverup?
by Roger Shuler
"But things changed last week with reports that the DOJ had found no criminal charges were warranted against Bush administration officials for the firings of nine U.S. attorneys."
This week in Change
by GLENN GREENWALD
"So there's your Week in Change: tens of billions more appropriated for war through supplemental spending tricks and without conditions or timetables, attacks on war opponents for being Troop-Haters, threats to criminally prosecute journalistic outlets (such as WikiLeaks) which publish classified information on the grounds of being Traitors, and a major expansion of the Government's ability to spy on your private communications without even obtaining warrants."
Obama Administration In Danger Of Establishing "New Normal" With Worst Bush-Era Policies, Says ACLU
ACLU press release
Goldilocks Triangulation
by digby
"First of all, the central premise seems to be that liberals should be happy that Obama has "gotten something done" without regard to what that "something" is."
Obama talks green jobs with Bill Clinton (finally)
Former president's plan might have leveraged $150 billion in clean investment -- and a million jobs before November
by JOE CONASON
Jay Bybee's sociopathic self-absorption
by GLENN GREENWALD
The witch-hunt vs. Sherrod, and those who made it possible
Did the right wing media manipulate the USDA scandal?
Special comment by Keith Olbermann
Why Goldman Got the S.E.C. to Back Off
by David Fiderer
"The weaknesses in the S.E.C.'s case against Goldman were always obvious."
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